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“Development” and Browning's Philosophy of Inadequacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Clyde de L. Ryals
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Extract

Robert Browning died in Venice on 12 December 1889. On the same day Asolando: Fancies and Facts was published in London. During this centennial year I should like to look at the poet's last publication and take note of his valedictory remarks particularly as they touch on his well-known “philosophy of the imperfect,” which I believe can be better understood as a philosophy of inadequacy. To that end I shall focus on the poem “Development,” which gives a general idea of what Browning had to say not only in Asolando but in much of his earlier work as well.

Type
Research Article
Information
Victorian Literature and Culture , Volume 18 , Spring 1990 , pp. 23 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

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